Any experiences with Electric Showers?

FireWyrm

Ok, it's been a little over a month and I can't stand not having a shower any longer. We have some money but no experience, so we decided to ask a plumber to fit an electric shower, swap the position of the bath and sink and tile two walls(where the shower will be).

Now the problem. I know nothing about plumbing and even less about electrics. The plumber that has provided a quioe keeps throwing around jargon and insisting that we need a qualified electrician to provide the power for the electric shower. He did say that the fuse board in the house is 'state of the art' (I recon you need a to be a NASA scientist to figure out what all the knobs and switches do) and that it has a single RCD (whatever that is) but it needs two...or something.

He has quoted £300 + VAT for the spark and £900 + VAT for his labour for moving the bath and tiling. We have bought the shower, the tiles and the shower blind.

1) does this sound even vaguely reasonable
2) what the heck is he talking about and should my bovine excrement meter be going off?
3) what are the modern regulations about fuses and electric showers that he keeps going on about because I cant find any help online.

Anyone with experience?

poppysarah

Get more quotes.

That's the best way.

GAH

Hi Firmwyrm

In Reply to your points.

1) It sounds a pretty average quote to me, if unsure get another quote. I would much rather pay someone that little bit extra if they were going to do a better jobs, especially when it comes to tiling.

2) Hes making the necessary recommendations, not uncommon.

3) All electrical work in the home now needs to be carried out by a qualified electricain, it accordance with Part P build regs.

rpc

GAH wrote: »

3) All electrical work in the home now needs to be carried out by a qualified electricain, it accordance with Part P build regs.

Not all work and not everywhere (in Scotland we have building warrants instead).

That said, it all sounds fair enough and as others have said, get more quotes if you aren't convinced.

FireWyrm

Thanks GAH...but something you said doesnt make sense...

All electrical work on a house needs to be carried our by an electrician?

Surely not...?! What about fitting new electrical switches..things like that?

What happens if you don't have a qualified electrician?

GAH

Sorry OP.

Not all work such as light fittings. But things like showers, re-wire, new fuse boxes, kitchen installations etc.

And as mentioned above, not in scotland, but OP is not in scotland.

Dave_the_Ginger_Cat

A shower typically needs to have its own circuit which needs to have a higher rating (both cabling and fuses) than other parts of the house - an electric cooker would require a similar upgrade and this will explain some of the cost.

I don't know of any ways around using a qualified electrician - here's one council's page on regs:

http://www.stroud.gov.uk/docs/planning/electrical_regulations.asp

Have a look at your own area's planning site, and as other posters suggest get a couple of quotes to compare.

FireWyrm

Thanks Dave...

Ah bloody hell, no wonder you can't get an electrician for love nor money, they're all running around doing DIY and busy informing the council about all those little household upgrades that they might want to take into account when they reband for council tax.

This sounds like nothing more than a money making scheme for electricians. I appreciate that I know nothing about electrics, but that doesn't mean that no one in the family does and therefore couldn't do the work if they were available. But this regulation means that you can do anything in your own house presumably.

Anyway, thanks for the reassurances...I've been watching too much cowboy builders and it's hard to know if what you're being told is true if you know nothing about the subject in the first place.

googler

Get plumbers to quote for thermostatic shower to work off the existing hot and cold supply to the bath - that'll save at least £300 and a lot of hassle to start with.......

If there's no cold water mains in the bathroom at the moment, the plumber will need to run a cold pipe from the nearest accessible point, because electric showers don't work off tank supplies.

If there's no cabling for an electric shower at present, the electrician will probably need to lift floorboards, chase into walls, etc at various points between your consumer unit and bathroom - depending on how far that is will determine your level of inconvenience.

Fit a thermostatic shower and you avoid all this.

Aquatronixjenny

Yep, I agree with the above. Why are you getting an electric shower? Its a lot of hassle running the electrics, your plumber is right - you need to be Part P qualified to run a spur from a fusebox for a shower. Could you not just extend the pipes that are there for the bath taps up into the wall and put a shower mixer valve in (£60 tops) and then fit a shower pump onto the hot and cold feeds (£120).

FireWyrm

Hi all. The reason we went for an electric shower is the same reason we need a shower in the first place. This house is a Victorian terrace and is split over 4 levels, the bathroom is off the 3rd level. We have fine cold water pressure, but almost no hot water pressure off the combi boiler. It takes a little bit less than the age of the universe to run a sodding bath! We originally wanted a 'power shower' since I had misunderstood the term...it's a shower and it has power was my thinking until I hit google and found out that you need a tank for that...which we don't have...alarmingly, the plumber didn't know this either or he would have corrected me instead of letting me ramble on about power showers...

So, after some investigation, it seems that we need something that heats as it goes from the cold water feed which is in fact an electric shower. We picked up a Mira Sport 9.5Kw from B&Q for £165 and after asking the blokes there, it seemed to be no difference between that and a 10.8kw. Certainly not enough to warrant an extra £100. Unfortunately, we know nothing about plumbing and so asked a plumber to advise a quote, which is where we are up to so far.